In my capacity as 'charity fund-raising husband', so to speak, I came across a piece of research that had discovered that it is the poorest people who are the most generous charity donors and the wealthy and 'young about towns' who were the meanest and most selfish. I suppose it makes sense, really. You get rich by keeping your money to yourself, not by giving it away. On the other hand, one could argue that if you live by receiving money from other people (state benefits) then it is no problem to give it away again. Whatever the reasons, the most generous places for charity giving in the South West were Plymouth, Truro and (surprisingly to me) Torquay. I suppose I had always had the impression of Torquay being a bit 'up market' but, in fact, there is a high proportion of low incomes there.

If you don't want to help a charity (or, if like nearly all of the companies we have approached, you have "already chosen your charity for this year") then nothing on this web site will make any difference. If you have an open mind, please at least look at the next two items.